230708 Christmas 2000

Merry Christmas!!

It was once said “All roads lead to Rome”. I would suggest that at Christmas time, “All roads lead to home”. For no matter where we are, at this time of year, our thoughts are homeward bound. The picture above was me tamping down the driveway with my tractor after a recent snowstorm. This time of year always solicits memories. As I look back, even the bad Christmases (those spent away from home during my Navy Service) are now remembered with a degree of fondness. I suppose it’s lucky for me that I have had so many wonderful memories of the season. I feel anguish for those who would have unpleasant recollections of this wonderful season. I would guess that many people have especially fond memories of childhood Christmas mornings. I’m not sure anything has been as exciting in my lifetime as awakening and running downstairs to see the brightly lit Christmas tree as an island beacon in a sea of brightly wrapped presents.

As I mail this, I think back to when I was a child and I would ask my Mother “how many days until Christmas?” It did not matter what the answer was, the time seemed to drag on forever. Now that I am a “senior citizen” it seems every time I awaken, it is not just a new day, but also a whole new month! As I sat discussing this Christmas letter writing project with Joyce (without whom, this would never have gotten off of the ground) I said “I am sure something happened this past year, but it seems like I have slept through it, because I remember nothing”. I was dead in the water, after three attempts started, and nothing worth the ink needed to print it; but Joyce, ever the advocate, helped pick the pictures and even the “roads to home theme”.

Once again she reminded me of how lucky I am to have the greatest gift of all, love. I cannot imagine where my life would have led me without her; to give me purpose, love, support and such a sense of joy that the words in my vocabulary fail to even begin to express the feelings that I have for her.

As you can see in this second picture, I’m busy clearing the road, in case you get the opportunity to drop in during the holiday season. I hope we do not have the amount of snow that is in this picture during the holidays, or ever again for that matter! As you may not realize, my mailbox is somewhere in that snow pile. It would not be right to miss one of those letters from Ed McMahon sent for Publisher's clearing house. Did I tell you I am a finalist? I may have already won.

In today’s cyber world, we not only have the actual road to home, but have virtual roads to virtual homes all existing somewhere in cyberspace. We can visit places that only exist in our mind’s eye. We can have friends out there in chat rooms accessible only by computer. We seem to be heading toward a computer in every home. We are becomng the cocooning society that futurists just a few years ago reported as our eventual outlook. I hope that we never get to the point when we lose that need for true human contact. But who knows, maybe there is a nice cyber family out there? I already have fond memories of my old TRS-80 laptop with 8k of memory. What a day that was when it was upgraded to 16k! Those were the good old days.

As I said before, Christmas is about memories; I hope yours are all good ones.

May you find love, peace and happiness in your life.

Bill & Joyce Weber